OCI Foundation Attends (Pics) FLAC’s “Partner Reception & Coffee Table Book Launch” (Abuja, Nigeria; 02/02/2023)

The OCI Foundation is pleased to have participated in the Partner Reception and Coffee Table Book Launch organised by the Nigerian First Ladies Against Cancer (FLAC). The event was held on Thursday, February the 2^nd, 2023 at the Fraser Suites, Abuja, Nigeria.

Alongside the organisers and Chairperson of FLAC (HE, Dr Zainab Bagudu-Shinkafi), other dignitaries in attendance were the Wife of the Nigerian Vice President (HE, Mrs Dolapo Osinbanjo), the Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Health, the Minister of Health, and the Executive Director, NPHCDA, the President, Nigerian Cancer Society, among others. The OCI Foundation was represented by Dr Ndaeyo IWOT and Dr Fatima Inusa Anga.

FLAC, an official partner of the OCI Foundation’s Arm Our Youths (ArOY) Health Anti0Cancer Campaign, is an umbrella organization of thirteen (13) Non- Governmental Organizations committed to increasing cancer awareness in Nigeria and expanding access to quality cancer care across the country. It is a coalition of the spouses of current and previous Nigerian state Governors from every geo-political zone of the Federation. The FLAC Initiative was established with the common objective to leverage the network of the First Ladies in helping to bridge the gap in cancer care within Nigeria through the tools of Advocacy, Early Detection, and Patient Support.

FLAC’s collaboration with the OCI Foundation on the ArOY Health Campaign has yielded one of the most wide-reaching and sustainable anti-cancer fights in Nigerian history. The program, which has two major parts,  regularly empowers hundreds of thousands of Nigerian youths with anti-breast and anti-cervical cancer preventive messages.

The first part targets Nigerian Senior Secondary Schools, and a legislative Bill to compulsorily include the relevant anti-cancer teachings into the their curriculum has passed through all the required three (3) hearings in the lower house of the Nigerian National Assembly, NASS. It now awaits harmonisation in the upper house (the Senate), before being signed into law by the Nigerian President.

The second part of the ArOY health Campaign, already fully functional, is in collaboration with the Nigerian National Youths Service Corps, NYSC (Africa’s largest youth organisation). Following a colourful launch on February 3, 2022 (which was graced by the Nigerian First Lady, Her Excelleny, Dr Aisha Buhari), the Campaign now holds six times (editions) a year across Nigeria’s 37 National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) Orientation Camps.

Other partners to the ArOY Campaign, are  the Nigerian Cancer Society (NCS), the Future Assured Foundation (founded by HE, Dr Aisha Buhari), and the Sweet Home Africa Humanitarian Foundation (SHAHF), among others.